PS Vita fails to beat 3DS launch figures

Initial sale figures for the PS Vita show that Sony’s new portable console has not managed to beat the 3DS’s record for its first two days, although sales are still said to be brisk.

PS Vita – not a record breaker yet

The numbers from Japan show that the PS Vita sold 321,407 consoles over the course of Saturday and Sunday, a good start but less than the 3DS managed at its launch earlier in the year.The 3DS sold 371,326 in two days when it launched in Japan back in February. The figure for the PS Vita is in line with initial predications, but it was expected to do a little better after Sony increased the available shipment from 500,000 to 700,000 consoles.The figures come from Japanese magazine Famitsu, via website Andriasang , which notes that the PSP sold 166,074 in its first day – although it doesn’t seem to have the results for the first two days so it’s pointless comparing those numbers.

Although there continue to be reports of hardware problems, including malfunctioning touchscreens and frozen consoles, the launch of the PS Vita seems to have gone relatively smoothly.With a hefty total of 24 titles available at launch though it’s not clear what impact the console will have on the software charts when they’re released on Thursday – but we don’t think anyone is really going to complain about having too many games rather than too few.Although the DS is the biggest console overall in Japan, for the last year or so the PSP has been easily out-selling it and the PS Vita is expected to do extremely well.As such these early sales figures are almost meaningless and the fate of both the 3DS and the PS Vita probably won’t be clear for at least a year. Especially as the Vita doesn’t launch in Europe until February 22.